It may be redundant or rather uneasy, but Apple is getting some bad attention while Microsoft shines in the limelight. As the new release of Microsoft?s search engine, Bing, and the Windows 7 RC out ? Apple begins to wonder if attackers are targeting Mac OS X and related Apple products. In addition, recent articles about a hacker saying ?Mac OS X easiest to hack? really do not help. As it pointed attackers in that direction, Apple knows their next OS release will be stronger and better. Although no severe vulnerabilities were reported, the OS is still at risk.
Quicktime, a recent ?toy? of attackers, has had over 15 vulnerabilities this year alone. Earlier this year, many learned about the seven vulnerabilities, which were client-side bugs that attackers exploited. On June 1, 2009, Apple released an advisory for ten more vulnerabilities for Quicktime, and a buffer overflow advisory for iTunes. Any user watching a video online using Quicktime could be infected with a single click. Quicktime 7.6.2 and iTunes 8.2 are now available, as they have been patched.
Attackers exploit vulnerabilities by luring users in to malicious traps, getting them to download the crafted videos. Drive-by attacks and malware driven cyberterrorism is the key methods attackers use. Cyberterrorism is known as the attempted software destruction of a target?s computer to physically render it inoperable. Although they are not that severe, if a specific high-risk infection were able to execute it on a user?s machine successfully, it would mess up business infrastructure and cause a slowdown of business/activities.
